RINOs* v Whatos?

Technorati Tags: Senator Boxer,Carly Fiorino,Meg Whitman,Deb Saunders,2010 election,RINOs

November 2010 is an election year in California, Dear Gentle Reader(s), and it promises to be almost as interesting as last year’s.

There has been much ballyhoo out here in the Pyrite State (Golden no longer, thanks to the Republican Party) about two mega-RINOs, Carly Fiorino and Meg Whitman, who have indicated a strong inclination to run for state office in 2010.  Fiorino is looking to replace Senator Boxer and Whitman to replace Governator Schwarznegger.

There’s a fly in someone’s ointment, if not a grain of sand in the Vaseline.  There are already Republican base snipers out taking pot shots at these two women.  For an early introduction into the Republican names who might figure in the attempt to wrest a senate seat from the Democrats as well as keep the Republicans in the governor’s office, hie thee to the Muckroom to read Debra J Saunders’ column, “Too Big To Vote?”

Ms Saunders is thinking neither woman could win if for no other reason than their respective voting records—very spotty for both women; Whitman didn’t register as a Republican until 2007.  Seems like a thin premise, but we’ll see.

Much ado about nothing?  Can Boxer possibly fall?  Are Californians finally getting tired of having Republican nay-sayers in charge?

Stay tuned and remember:

Trust, but verify.

*Republican In Name Only—Honorable men and women who do not adhere to the right wing fundamentalists

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Why Afghanistan?

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Taliban,Charlie Wilson,CIA

Hmmm.  Because it’s there?  It’s where the money is?  No and No.  It is because we have a moral obligation to try to bring stability to that benighted nation.

Remember Charlie Wilson’s War?  That’s why we’re there.  No, not the movie; the subject of the movie.  When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, the CIA—our CIA—with the help or insistence of Mr. Wilson, began to supply and assist the various Afghani fighters with money, supplies, and information.  One of the fighting factions were what would become the Taliban.  We funded them.  We armed them.  Then, when the Russians finally left Afghanistan, we didn’t keep an eye on them.  We let them take control of the post-Russian Afghani government, and then—we know the rest.

That’s why we need to continue in Afghanistan.  We need to finish the job the Bush administration virtually abandoned.

We cannot morally allow the Taliban to inflect its cultic will on the Afghani people without some serious attempt to prevent a return of that country to the plight of those people under the oppression of 7th century thinking.

Trust, but verify.

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Muckroom Follies 8.18.09 Brit Health Care

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Townhall.com,Cal Thomas,British NHS,Right Wing pundits

Watching the right wing tie itself into lying knots is mildly amusing; watching a commentator struggle to toe the line is sad.  Cal Thomas is trying to help defeat the attempts to reform health care (Why?  What will the right gain from insisting that the poor must be unhealthy?) while still keeping some semblance of rational thought is an example of the sad.

If you must, Dear Gentle Reader(s), you might go to a column by Thomas presented in Townhall.com, “NHS vs. USA.”  In it he manages to cite stories from the British press which disparage the NHS.  However, in his second paragraph, he is forced to admit that the British Tory leader, David Cameron, is not quite so politically unhappy with the government run health care:  “In an apparent effort to outflank the critically ill Labour Party, Cameron promises to strengthen the NHS.”

If the NHS is so unpopular and so ineffective, why is the leader of the conservative party, the party of the Iron Lady Thatcher—you remember, she’s the one at the head of the Brit government which “defeated” Billy Eliot’s miner father—making political promises to “strengthen” the service? It doesn’t make much sense.

Perhaps it’s time for more progressives in the U.S. to take to the streets, or at least to the typewriter (metaphorically), and let the congressperson nearest you know that the fear tactics over “socialized” medicine will not work.  Public option is necessary.

Trust but verify.

n.b.  For a truly scary moment, drop down and read some of the letters following the Thomas article. 

Example from a writer in MI:

Black Panther in White House Tanking....

The Kenyan coke-head is literally sinking among the American people. His real support base is among the losers like those in ACORN and SEIU.
What a shame but what could we expect? He had almost zero experience in life, other than race-baiting community organization, which is a fancy term for threatening to sue firms if they didn't hire enough so called "minorities".
The anti-American, Marxist-Muslim is tanking.......don't ya love it!

There is no better indication of the failures of the American educational system.  Alas.

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Um…

Technorati Tags: Paul Krugman,The New York Times,Republican Party,President Obama,Bipartisanship,Death Panels,Truth,Lies

Today, Dear Gentle Reader(s), Paul Krugman has a column in which he discusses the futility of trying for bipartisanship in the political climate of Washington, D.C.

The article, Republican Death Trip, is, as usual, fascinating reading.

Naturally, there’s a quibble.  (Else why bother?)

Krugman uses much “ink” to discuss the Palinesque “death panels;” but the strongest language he (and/or possibly The New York Times editors?) can muster is: “It’s a complete fabrication, of course.”

Ouch.

Come on, Mr. K.  Go for broke.  Call it what it is:  a lie.  It won’t kill you to be a little more forceful.

Trust, but verify.

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